Sunday, October 12, 2008

Mumme Poll, Week 7

The Mumme Poll was devised by Senator Blutarsky over at Get the Picture, a Georgia and SEC -centric blog. The Poll was inspired by New Mexico State (and former Kentucky) head coach Hal Mumme's wacky ass number one vote for Hawaii last season.

What makes this poll worth mentioning, as opposed to your run of the mill resume ranking or arbitrary power ranking, is that it is based upon an "approval rating." Basically Sen. Blutarsky has the 59 Mumme Poll voters submit a ballot of 12 teams, no rankings, with only the top 5 designated as such (again, the top five are unranked; they are simply labeled "top 5"). Teams will then be rated by how often they appear in each voter's ballots, with the top five designations being used as tie breakers. Follow? No? Well then fuck you.

So without further ado, I give to you my Ballot for the week

Top Five:

Texas- This team has been more and more impressive each week. The importance of their win over Oklahoma cannot be overstated; put simply, Texas has the inside track to the B12 championship game (brought to you by Dr. Pepper) and, by reason of the "B12-SEC rulzzz!!!" meme, the national championship. Texas is certainly not without flaws, however, and their 98th ranked pass defense (244 ypg, yikes!) and that Colt McCoy is their only consistent rushing threat makes their stay near the top a precarious one, at best, especially given the quality of quarterbacks in their conference. Games against Mizzou, Okie State, Texas Tech, and Kansas will all test their defensive mettle.

Alabama- They have yet to trail this entire season. That is all.

Florida- If you all will recall, I was bullish on Florida throughout the preseason. And although meh-tastic games against Miami and Ole Miss put a damper on my enthusiasm for the Gators, any team that can drop 51 on LSU is deserving of, at the very least, a "top 5" designation. The offense has finally loosened up and, against LSU of all teams, resembled my expectations. Jeff Demps has emerged as the running threat beyond the two headed monster of Tebow/Harvin and has rushed for over 100 in consecutive weeks, both times posting sick nasty ypc's of over 12.

Penn State- It kills me that all signs point to Penn State being left out of the national championship. Their curb-stomping of Wisconsin, in Camp Randall, cements their place as one of the nation's elite. This team, unlike B10 teams of years past, is actually a lot of fun to watch; the continued emergence of Derrick Williams, Evan Royster, and Staphon Green and the consistent excellence of Daryl Clark makes this offense Penn State's best in a long time, perhaps even surpassing the Mike Robinson led 2005 squad in fantastic-acity. I do not see anyone challenging this team the rest of the way, Ohio State will be hard pressed to score double digits and Michigan...well...no need to pour water on a drowning man.

USC- I really hate to give them a "Top 5" designation, I really do. They won ugly against Arizona State, turning the ball over 5 times. In fact, I don't even know why I'm putting them in my top 5-I've railed against the Trojans all season long, why begrudgingly bestow upon them respect now? Ughhh, they wouldn't be here if I hadn't already submitted my ballot. Damn you, Pete Carroll. If only we weren't friends on FaceBook.

This team is painfully overrated and gets by more upon reputation than by actual on-field dominance. Hell, look at me! In spite of my notorious cynicism, even I am unable to resist! I'd not be shocked if USC lost another clunker somewhere down the line.

Rest of the Ballot:

BYU

Tulsa

Georgia

Ohio State

Oklahoma

Texas Tech (another team I don't want to rank)

Boise State

Notes:

-Conspicuously Absent: LSU, Missouri

With Auburn's slow demise (seriously? Arkansas? Dude, what the fuck?), LSU is without a stellar, or even solid, victory on which to hang their hat. And they certainly didn't look like a "good" team against the Gators. Missouri, while their offense is WHOOSH-BAM!, suffers from a terrifically mediocre defense and will likely drop another game before the season is done (probably to Texas next week). Even their vaunted offense was stymied by the Cowboys (enter obligatory "I'm a man, I'm 40" reference here).

-Bullish on Mid-Majors

No one has come even close to hanging with the Broncos; it took a furious 19-point fourth quarter rally for Oregon to bring the game within 5...and this was in Autzen! Boise State will go undefeated without breaking much of a sweat, but unfortunately, their belt will probably lack a truly shiny pelt, as Oregon doesn't look like anything special this year. They could still make it to a BCS poll depending upon movement above them, popular sentiment, and BYU.

Tulsa has been dropping bombs all season long, tallying point totals of 45, 56, 56, 62, 63, and 37. When your worst point total is 37 points, you're doing something very right. And while their defense may be a bit suspect (see 342 yards to Central Arkansas) this team is still deserving of a vote based upon their flaming fireworks wagon of an offense and 6-0 record.